When Stalin became Stalin. Nicknames of the leader

The name of I.V. Stalin, who headed the USSR for almost 30 years (from the mid-1920s to 1953), is associated with a long and controversial period in the history of our country. This name is associated with the victory in the Great Patriotic War, the transformation of Russia from a backward peasant country into a country with advanced science and developed industrial production, the emergence of atomic weapons as a protective and restraining force. Also, mass political repressions, the practice of imprisonment and physical destruction of dissenters and dissidents, the complete absence of freedom in all spheres of life are firmly associated with the name of Stalin.

But many people familiar with history know that the real name of this person is not Stalin at all, but Dzhugashvili. Stalin is a political pseudonym. Why then Stalin-Stalin?

The same Dzhugashvili had 22 pseudonyms. And why was Stalin called Stalin?

Why did Stalin take such a pseudonym

There are no historical sources that give an unambiguous answer to this question. Historians can only guess. The most common of the versions:

Stalin is a translation from Georgian into Russian of the name Dzhugashvili. Indeed, in ancient Georgian "juga" - steel, "shvili" - son. Literally, Dzhugashvili is the son of steel.
Many Russian revolutionaries chose Russian-language pseudonyms, showing their determination and firmness in the struggle for revolutionary ideals. In addition to Stalin, there were, for example, Molotov (Scriabin), Kamenev (Rosenfeld).
When choosing a pseudonym, Dzhugashvili was guided by the surname of a real person - E. S. Stalinsky, a populist by conviction, the author of the translation into Russian of the poem "The Knight in the Panther's Skin."

Stalin turned out to be an extremely successful pseudonym. It accurately describes the nature of its carrier (inflexibility and flexibility, like steel), is easy to pronounce in any language, close to the pseudonym of the Bolshevik leader Lenin. It is no coincidence that Dzhugashvili entered history not under his real name, but under his pseudonym.

About Joseph Stalin perhaps too much has already been written. Including the excess. And at the same time, the most attentive and conscientious authors bypassed or did not consider it necessary to reflect in their works the names, pseudonyms and nicknames of Stalin. Meanwhile, a well-aimed nickname or an "alien" surname indicated in one of the passports can say a lot more about a person than an extensive article about his "arts". Suffice it to recall such a "lighted up" modern politician as Pavel Lazarenko - "Pasha the American", who acquired the nickname during his time in US prisons. In this regard, Stalin (aka Joseph Dzhugashvili) is no exception.

Even the name and surname of Joseph Dzhugashvili are not easy. The official biography, edited by the leader himself, states: "His father, Vissarion Ivanovich, is Georgian by nationality, comes from peasants." The question is, why was it necessary to emphasize the Georgian origin of Stalin? And in order to sweep away all doubts and knock out weapons from the hands of those who considered the father of the future Stalin to be Ossetian Dzhugaev, who changed his surname and remade it in a Georgian way with the help of an ending. But doubts remained. The poet Osip Mandelstam, in a poem that killed him in the 30s of the 20th century, noted in Stalin not only "fat fingers", but also "the broad chest of the Ossetian" ...

Nevertheless, the vast majority of people consider Stalin not the son of an Ossetian, and certainly not the illegitimate offspring of the Russian traveler and general Nikolai Przhevalsky (then the name Dzhugashvili would have turned out to be a pseudonym!), but an ordinary Georgian. However, not quite ordinary, but a person who, for some still not entirely clear reasons, changed both the day and year of his birth in 1921-1922. If this forgery was done by assistants to the Secretary General who filled out questionnaires and biographical information for Stalin, then it is not clear why this "misinformation" has grown into all official documents and has remained there forever. "Officially" Stalin was born on December 9 (21), 1879. But in fact, in the metric book of the Gori Assumption Cathedral Church, it is written: "December 6, 1878." The names of newborns were then given in honor of Orthodox saints who were born or became famous on this day. So, the boy who was born on the church holiday of the miracle worker St. Nicholas, Archbishop of Myra, should have become the namesake of the king's heir, that is, Nicholas. And suddenly, instead of the expected, easily predictable name Nikolai, the baby receives the name Joseph, that is, "multiplied." Alias again?

Sometimes it was pointed out that Stalin deliberately "moved" his birthday by three days from the name day of Emperor Nicholas II. But for some reason, ordinary peasants Dzhugashvili did not give their baby the name Nikolai. Although it seems that Major General Nikolai Przhevalsky (1839-1888) visited the Caucasus a year or a few months before the birth of his son, the Dzhugashvili couple visited the Caucasus. And the fourth child of Ekaterina Dzhugashvili survived, unlike the previous three. We also note that much later, when the monuments to Stalin were already demolished in the USSR after the exposure of his personality cult, someone discovered a striking similarity between the sculptural portraits of Przhevalsky and Stalin. Dark business? And still controversial, not fully explained ...

But one way or another, the future Stalin got his name in honor of the Righteous Joseph the Betrothed, whose day was celebrated on the first Sunday after Christmas. Because Joseph's mother seemed to want to "betroth" her son to the church. Hence the subsequent study in a spiritual institution.

Father, mother and comrades called little Joseph Soso. Surprisingly, this baby name spread widely and was subsequently used in many memoirs and memoirs. Yes, and Stalin himself in 1911, reminding the Moscow Bolsheviks of himself, "for clarity" indicated: "The Caucasian Soso is writing to you ... Germanov knows me how to ... b ... a (he will understand)". Stalin used not only this name with a variation - "Caucasian Soso", but also a derivative of it - Soselo (as Joseph's mother sometimes called him).

However, Joseph himself quite early came up with a name for himself, now recognized as his first pseudonym or nickname. According to Iosif Iremashvili, Stalin's childhood friend, "... Soso began calling himself Koba and insisting that we only call him that." According to Leon Trotsky, Stalin was always called Koba or Koba-Stalin in Georgia. Young Joseph got the name Koba from the Georgian patriotic novel by Alexander Kazbegi "Nunu" (or another name for the novel - "The Parricide"). The hero of the uprising, a supporter of Imam Shamil, the leader of the mountaineers Koba in the novel spares no one and nothing - he sacrifices his wife Nunu, and, in the end, his life. There is evidence that only the closest and highest-ranking party comrades, for example, Vyacheslav Molotov, General Secretary Stalin allowed himself to be called Koba. That is, if in childhood Stalin rejoiced when he was called Koba, and asked everyone to call him that, then, having reached the pinnacle of power, he kept this name only for the elite.

With the nicknames and nicknames of Stalin, the situation is even more complicated. There are few who want to announce their "nickname", especially if it is offensive. Nevertheless, in various kinds of publications one can sometimes come across Stalin's nicknames. In the unfinished book "Stalin", Lev Trotsky, who was killed on the orders of the hero of the book (the situation is more abrupt than the plot of another detective!) indicates: in one "fantastic" biography of Stalin, it is reported that before the seminary, Joseph led a wandering life in Tiflis in the society of "kinto" - hooligans, singers and talkers, from whom he adopted rude tricks and virtuoso curses. Trotsky did not believe such "fiction", but in the fall of 1923, he first heard the nickname Kinto - a clever rogue and a cynic capable of much - addressed to Stalin from the lips of the old Georgian Bolshevik Philip Makharadze. Trotsky noted: "Maybe this nickname stuck to Joseph already in his youth and gave rise to a legend about the street chapter of his life?"

Stalin, as you know, was not a good speaker, and besides, he spoke with a Georgian accent until the end of his life. For a communist, nationality is not the main thing, but sometimes Stalin referred himself to the Russian great people. "I am a Russian chalavek!" - the poetess Anna Akhmatova once mimicked him in a circle of friends. There is also a case with film actor Alexei Diky. Stalin was fed up with the portrayal of him in films by the actor Mikhail Gelovani as too sugary and stupid. And he ordered Diky, who was then in Stalin's camps (in the Gulag), to "be Stalin". Togo was urgently brought to Moscow for screen tests. Not wanting to play the role of a satrap, Dikoi specifically spoke in the footage in pure Russian and argued that he could not play with an accent. Stalin cut what seemed to be a complex knot simply: "The leader of the Russian people can and must speak Russian well!"

And oddly enough, even as a child, Joseph had a nickname or nickname Russian. No, not because he was fluent in Russian and knew Russian literature. Much later in the USSR, he became the chief linguist and gave awards named after himself to Russian writers (as well as Ukrainian, Georgian, etc.). The fact is that Vissarion Dzhugashvili lived in a house located not far from the barracks of Russian soldiers, and therefore the whole quarter was called "Russian". Edvard Radzinsky, author of the book "Stalin", writes: "And children often call Soso Russian - a man from the Russian quarter." However, this statement is disputed by many researchers and interpreted in different ways. Moreover, many do not agree with the English Sovietologist Robert Conquest, author of the book "Stalin. The Conqueror of Nations", who pointed out that Stalin "always irritated the Georgians" and that "Stalin, in fact, did not become either a real Georgian or a complete Russian." How here to the point not to recall the nickname-characteristic of Stalin, given and repeatedly mentioned by Lenin: "wonderful Georgians." Probably, the ingenuous statement "in secret" of Vasya, Stalin's little son, sister Svetlana, is closest to the truth: "You know, our father used to be a Georgian" ...

On the memorial plaque of the Tiflis Seminary, it was indicated that "the great Stalin studied here from September 1, 1894 to July 29, 1899." It is strange that in many sources other terms of Joseph's training are given - from 4 to 6 years. The reasons for leaving or exclusion are also very diverse. "The most official of historians" (in the words of Trotsky), Lavrenty Beria, noted that Stalin was "expelled for unreliability." But Stalin's mother Ekaterina (Keke, as her relatives called her) denied the fact that her son was expelled from the seminary, claiming that she had taken Joseph from there for health reasons. And the above-mentioned fellow student and friend of Stalin Iremashvili assured everyone that Koba himself decided to leave the seminary, becoming the worst student in the penultimate, fifth, grade. Stalin slipped into the worst not because of laziness, but because he was convinced of the aimlessness of hard work for him and because of the departure from religion. He read a lot during this period. Through the streets of Tiflis, he made his way in the crowd so swiftly and walked so straight that his close comrades called him Geza - a man walking straight (memoirs of Georgy Elisabedashvili).

And on June 14, 1895, the poem "Morning" with the signature "I. J-shvili" appeared in the newspaper "Iveria" edited by the famous Georgian writer Ilya Chavchavadze (on the first page!) A fairly transparent caption, but even so, Conquest felt that Stalin did not love nature enough to create such poems. It is curious that this verse was subsequently placed in the textbook for elementary schools "Deda Ena" ("Native Word"). From September 22 to December 25, 1895, four more poems ("Moon", "Rafail Eristavi", etc.) were published in the same newspaper under the pseudonym Soselo, also easily explained. But "pseudonymization" allowed the authors writing about Stalin to this day to doubt whether the poems belonged to the pen of young Joseph. "Geza" Joseph concealed his authorship because the seminary authorities forbade pupils to publish "worldly" - not on church subjects - poems.

In 1896, Joseph published his last poem in the literary newspaper "Kvali" ("Furrow"). This newspaper soon became the organ of one of the groups of Marxists, and Joseph, having stopped writing poetry, turned into a "professional revolutionary." At 22. The revolutionaries, of necessity, had many names. And Joseph at different times, and sometimes at the same time, was called David, Koba, Nizheradze, Chizhikov, Ivanovich, Stalin. Moreover, the tsarist authorities endowed the revolutionaries with their nicknames. Stalin, who had pockmarks on his face, passed by the gendarmes under the nickname Pockmarked. Pockmarks showed up noticeably when Joseph was angry ...

The purely Russian pseudonym Stalin Ivanovich is most likely associated with the name of Stalin's grandfather Vano (or Ivan). It can be assumed that the young revolutionary took the pseudonym Ivanov in memory of his grandfather. But the pseudonym Besoshvili, no doubt, came from the name of Joseph's father - many of Vissarion called Beso or Beso. Besoshvili! Of course, there was no demonism in the pseudonym, but life has shown how demonically Stalin can make fun of his party comrades!

The pseudonym Solin appeared with Stalin after exile in 1909 and 1910-1911 to the city of Solvychegodsk. On February 13 (26), 1910, the newspaper "Social Democrat" published an article "Literary opportunities", signed by K. Stefin. What the initial K. means is still unknown (it is assumed that it is Koba). Stalin's articles from 1910 to April 1912 are also signed by K. St. and K.S. Around this time, Stalin moved his birthday to a different date - to December 9 (21), on a day that was interconnected by the church with St. Stephen the Novosiatel. Hence the pseudonym Stefin.

And 10 years before that, in 1900-1901, Stalin was a "disciple of the revolution" (he himself admitted this and sometimes even called himself that). At the end of 1901, he received his first independent assignment and moved from Tiflis to Batum. In the official biography of Stalin, it was reported that even then the Batumi workers called him a "teacher." On the one hand, "student", but on the other - "teacher"! At the same time, only a few knew the "teacher" himself, since Konstantin Kandelaki, who was called "teacher's assistant," had direct and constant contact with the workers. Such a "division of labor" and "hierarchy" suited Koba-Stalin. In April 1902, Kandelaki, Dzhugashvili and some other organizers of demonstrations and strikes were arrested. Stalin was arrested 7 times. He spent 8 years and 10 months in prisons and exile. The exiled Iosif Dzhugashvili received the nickname Dairy from the police, apparently because he drank a lot of milk. And, for example, the nickname Sweet was assigned to Nikolai Bukharin in the police. But then, when the country was ruled by the Bolsheviks, the prisoners of the Gulag had to forget about milk and sweets forever ...

Then in exile it was possible not only to eat well, but also to escape from it. After the escapes, being in an illegal position, Stalin lived under different surnames. In his fake passports, the following names and surnames were listed: Hovhannes Vartanovich Totomyants, a resident of the village of Maglaki in the Kutaisi province Kanos Nizhradze, Zakar Krikoryan-Melikyants, Chizhikov. Isn't it true that today these pseudonyms sound almost anecdotal? Lenin's pseudonyms were simpler and more significant. During the escapes, Stalin pretended to be a "different person". What he called himself is unknown, but, no doubt, he tried not to attract undue attention to himself.

Until now, due to the lack of reliable documents that do not raise doubts about the authenticity, there are disputes about whether Stalin was an agent of the tsarist police. In the book of Isaac Don Levin "Stalin's Greatest Secret" (1956) it is reported that on April 15, 1906, after his arrest in Tiflis, Stalin began to cooperate with the police and gave them the location of the Avlabar printing house. But in the typewritten letter of Colonel Eremin, cited as proof of Stalin's "betrayal", many errors and inconsistencies were discovered. We will not list them all, but we will indicate only those related to surnames and pseudonyms. In their documents, the police called the revolutionaries by their true, real surnames, and not by party pseudonyms. So the indication of the double surname Dzhugashvili-Stalin in July 1913 is doubly contrary to police rules, because Koba appeared with the pseudonym Stalin only at the beginning of 1913, and in the letter of the colonel cited by Levin, it is stated that Stalin gave valuable intelligence information back in 1906. In addition, the "agent" administratively sent to the Turukhansk Territory (although the Okhrana agents were actually called "sexots", that is, "secret employees"), according to the spelling rules of that time, should have been called not Iosif Vissarionovich, but Iosif Vissarionov (in the same way , say, Ivan Vasilyevich in police materials would be Ivan Vasilyev, etc.).

Among the 10 seksots who worked in the provincial gendarme department and the Baku security department in 1909-1914, there was Nikolai Yerikov, according to Bakradze's passport, David Vissarionovich, known under the nickname Ficus. In the late 1980s, "information" appeared that Stalin was Ficus, and Stepan Shaumyan exposed him as a provocateur. In reality, Shaumyan and Koba simply did not get along (Stalin generally got along only with limited, dim personalities who recognized his superiority). So you can be almost 100% sure that the pseudonym Ficus Koba "did not work."

Joseph Stalin did not even reach the "title" of a foreign spy. Although there were attempts to "make" him an English or Turkish agent. So, in the "Nezavisimaya Gazeta" of December 21, 1996, in the article "Enemy" (what a nickname, so nickname!) Alexander Obraztsov "produced" Stalin into British agents! wildly? Yes! But no more than Iosif Vissarionovich himself sinned, enlisting many of Lenin's associates as foreign agents. And, as you know, Beria, who wished to become after the death of Stalin at the helm of the USSR, at the whim of Nikita Khrushchev, "turned out" to be an English spy! The gloomy and monotonous "humor" of those fighting for power ...

Much has been written about the relationship between Stalin and Lenin. Stalin finds both dislike for Lenin and blind admiration for him. And the truth is that in different periods of time, the "feelings" of Stalin and Lenin for each other were not unchanged, frozen. In the book "Stalin as a Revolutionary. 1878-1929" Robert Tucker considered Stalin to be a "blind imitator" of Lenin, and found manifestations of Lenin's "hero worship". Of particular interest is Tucker's reference to the opinion of the Menshevik Razhden Arsenidze, who asserted that "Stalin copied Lenin to such an extent that we called him 'Lenin's left foot'." Moreover, it turns out that "Stalin repeated Lenin's arguments like a gramophone." that the worship of Lenin as a hero did not prevent Stalin from striving to become Lenin, his second self, Lenin's "left foot" wanted to rise to the level of the right.

Where Tucker is right, perhaps, is in the analysis of the chosen pseudonyms. He believes, not without reason, that the set of pseudonyms of Stalin testifies to the desire to have consonant with the pseudonym Lenin: Salin, Stefin, Solin, Stalin. Indeed, the revolutionary pseudonyms of other associates of Lenin are less similar to the pseudonym Lenin: Trotsky, Kamenev, Zinoviev, Molotov ...

Trotsky explained, if not the origin, then the meaning of the pseudonym Stalin: "Koba adopts the pseudonym Stalin, deriving it from steel, just as Rosenfeld had earlier adopted the pseudonym Kamenev, deriving it from stone: the young Bolsheviks used solid pseudonyms." But if Molotov, for example, took care only of the "hardness" of the pseudonym, then Stalin, as if in advance, with his pseudonym, approached Lenin, so to speak, "linguistically." (Isn't it curious that party comrades - of course, among themselves - nicknamed the secretary of the Central Committee of the Molotov party "stone ass", or even simply "stone zho ..." for perseverance and slow-wittedness, that is, they noted his "firmness"?).

Stalin, then Ivanovich, met Lenin and Trotsky for the first time in December 1905 at a conference of the Bolshevik faction in Finland. The “leader of the Petersburg Soviet,” Trotsky, who had thundered even then, did not notice Stalin. Ivanovich-Koba, the "gray" (by Trotsky's definition), did not impress Lenin, but nevertheless became a participant in party congresses in Stockholm and London, albeit with an advisory vote. Far from immediately, Lenin abandoned the idea of Stalin as a peripheral worker, a representative of national minorities. In 1907-1910, Stalin wrote a lot on various topics. An article in the newspaper "Baku proletarian" (dated July 20, 1908) "Conference and Workers" was signed by him with the pseudonym Koba. And the article "To the forthcoming general strike" in the same newspaper for August 27, 1909 has the pseudonym K. Ko. What the initial K means here is unknown.

By the way, it was in Baku that Stalin began to constantly write and publish in Russian. Note that some of the works written by him were published without a signature, anonymously. For example, the article "Our goals" in the first issue of the newspaper "Pravda" dated April 22 (May 5), 1912. And at a meeting of party members in a house behind the Narva outpost in St. Petersburg, in the apartment of the worker Savinov, he was present under the name Comrade Vasily. In Vienna, under the "wing" of Lenin, communicating with Bukharin and other party members, in 1913 he signed the work "Marxism and the National Question" and other articles and notes with the new pseudonym Stalin. After the revolution and until now, as in this material, he is called by the name of Stalin and in the "pre-Stalin period" of activity and life ...

In addition to the definition of "wonderful Georgians", in the pre-revolutionary period, Stalin "got" from Lenin also the epithet "fiery Colchian". Sounds like? But this was written by Lenin in a letter in response to a compliment from Stalin, who called Lenin the "mountain eagle" of the party. And, besides, Trotsky sensibly reasoned that Lenin so figuratively called Stalin simply as a Caucasian, relying on the name of the Caucasus given by the poet Alexander Pushkin - "fiery Colchis." And that's it. No Danko with a burning heart was meant here ...

Interestingly, the "wonderful Georgian" from March 1913 to February 1917 did not write anything in the party press. So Lenin even forgot his real name and asked his comrades-in-arms about it. There is a suspicion that at this time, while in exile, Stalin composed essays on the Turukhansk region. But the leader did not include them in the collected works. And since 1917, there was no longer a need to secretly publish ...

In the post-revolutionary period, and especially after the death of Lenin and the conquest of unlimited power by Stalin, a lot of epithets, nicknames and nicknames "fell down" on him. Mainly praises, doxologies that can be quoted endlessly and which have become widely known, and much less common negative nicknames. And almost completely unknown to many readers are the pseudonyms of Stalin, chosen by him after the revolution (and they were, and in considerable numbers!).

It is clear that, in contrast to the super-enthusiastic epithets known to all Soviet people, when applied to Stalin's personality, sharply negative and offensive nicknames were distributed mainly abroad. The merit of their "voicing" to a large extent belongs to Lev Trotsky, who was expelled from the USSR in 1929, a creative and attentive person who managed to characterize and christen Stalin from various sides and positions.

Here are just some of the characteristics of Stalin, proposed by the "red Napoleon" - Trotsky. Published in 1896 in the newspaper Kvali, the Marxist Koba was called by Trotsky "a plebeian democrat of the provincial type, who entered the revolutionary movement, armed with a very primitive "Marxist" doctrine, and essentially remained so to the end." Trotsky, however, did not manage to see the end of Stalin, which he personally took care of. In 1900, Stalin, according to Trotsky - Koba-Tiflis, then "Baku Social Democrat." In 1904, Stalin is characterized by a former colleague more figuratively: "Strategically he is an opportunist, tactically he is a 'revolutionary'. In his own way, he is an opportunist with a bomb." It is said about Stalin in the period of 1913-1914: "In this revolutionary there was always a conservative bureaucrat" and "empiricist". Naturally, after the revolution, during the struggle for power, Trotsky's Stalin was "a man of lies through and through," "a conveyor falsifier," and even an "exploiter of widows." However, the last two definitions seem to follow from Trotsky's text, and are not formulated as nicknames. For example, Trotsky describes how the widows of Sergo Ordzhonikidze and Iona Yakira were forced to humiliate and insult the memory of their husbands in order to please the leader, after which he concludes: "Such is the exploitation of widows." Trotsky managed to say a lot about Stalin's personality cult (which the Soviet people learned about only from Nikita Khrushchev's report at the 20th Congress of the CPSU). Back in 1940, he noted: “In the religion of Stalinism, Stalin takes the place of God with all his attributes. But this is not a Christian god who dissolves in the Trinity. Stalin left the time of the troika far behind. It is rather Allah - there is no God but God, which fills the universe with its infinity." And here is what else Trotsky was able and managed to say about the cult of the "devoted Georgian" (another Leninist name for Stalin): "He is the Lord of the physical and spiritual world, the creator and ruler. He is omnipotent, wise and kind, merciful. His decisions are irrevocable. With him 99 names". As we can see, Trotsky's characterization contains the quintessence of all subsequent criticism of the cult of personality. After all, everyone began to praise Stalin - from top to bottom. The party associates "returned" to him even the image he invented for Lenin: Anastas Mikoyan said at the 18th Party Congress: "Stalin is a mountain eagle who knows no fear in the struggle." On the occasion of the leader's 70th birthday, Khrushchev "turned" Stalin into a gardener: "Comrade Stalin, like a caring gardener, raises and educates ... cadres ...". But Nikita knew exactly how Stalin "educated" the cadres and even senior comrades like Trotsky.

It is clear that it makes no sense to enumerate all the "99 names" of Stalin already known to Trotsky, especially since after the brutal murder of this accuser, a whole sea of names and titles of Stalin arose. Here are just a few drops from this sea. Maxim Rylsky in "Song of Stalin" discovered: "... Up high the mighty eagle soared." Serving the party bosses as a "former count" (which flattered the poorly educated leaders of a great country), Alexei Tolstoy "established": "You are the clear sun of the peoples, The sunsetless sun of modernity And more than the sun, for there is no wisdom in the sun." Poetry dedicated to Stalin, in the figurative expression of Trotsky, "turns into grunting." In the collection "Stalin in the Songs of the Peoples of the USSR", published during the lifetime of Trotsky, who looked with amazement at the transformation of the former "comrade K." and "Vasilyev" into the "father of the peoples" and "the great Stalin", the general secretary became the "son of Lenin." One can quote such praises ad infinitum, but many readers themselves probably know no less "lofty" words about Stalin. So it makes sense to move on to more modest nicknames for the leader.

As the same Trotsky stated, Lenin had a very figurative (one more!) definition of Stalin: “Lenin warned with alarm in 1921:“ This cook will cook only spicy dishes. some people still have a suspicion (and this version has come down to our time) that Stalin - "Super-Borgia in the Kremlin" - was involved in the poisoning of Lenin and the writer Maxim Gorky. Sometimes they write that Stalin sent Gorky a cake with poison ...

Comrades who found themselves in the leadership of the country often invented and spread nicknames and offensive epithets. Stalin's nickname Asiatic goes back to the old Bolshevik and talented engineer Leonid Krasin. This nickname reflects the endurance, insight, deceit and cruelty characteristic of eastern despots. Bukharin "corrected" and "specified" this nickname. Taking into account the totality of all the negative traits of Stalin's character, he put into circulation (among a narrow circle of people) the nickname Genghis Khan. And being on a business trip in Paris in 1936, he expressed himself more directly: "... This is a small, evil man, not a man, but a devil." Bukharin knew that Stalin would "devour all of us" and him personally, but returned to the USSR. However, publicly he continued to praise the leader until his last days.

"Intriguer" Stalin (another definition of Bukharin) was not happy in family life. Whatever his defenders wrote about it, but dissatisfaction with his wife and children, behavior in the family of the Secretary General came from his character. Better than other children, he treated his daughter Svetlana, jokingly referring to her more than once in letters and verbally as a "mistress". At the same time, he himself called himself her "secretary" and "secretary". That is, he behaved like the tsars Ivan the Terrible and Peter I, sometimes in words, as if passing into a subordinate position in relation to someone.

Stalin and Grozny had not only the same initials. In the 30s of the XX century, some residents of Soviet intelligence abroad were given Stalin's special pseudonym - Ivan Vasilyevich, which was understandable not only to professional intelligence officers. It is clear that the servants of the General Secretary at the dachas and in the apartment called him respectfully behind his back "master". But the same nickname was also used by high-ranking state and party leaders. So it is not difficult to find in the literature the name Boss, even without quotes, "attached" to Stalin.

If it had not been for the Great Patriotic War, Stalin would have had, apparently, much fewer pseudonyms. But the war came, hard and protracted. And Stalin at first again, as if "according to the habit of the old underground worker" (this expression of the leader was known even to children and was used by them during the games), began to be called Vasiliev. And at the same time "renamed" the commanders. But all military pseudonyms are the most simple - just patronymics or the names of these people. And only Stalin has a pseudonym - with "pre-revolutionary experience." Pseudonyms were introduced for the military leadership of the country in order to prevent the enemy from learning the plans of the Soviet command. In order to "strengthen the disguise," the pseudonyms of the leadership of the Red Army changed several times during the war.

By 1943, not only the introduction of shoulder straps in the Red Army, but also the assignment to Stalin of the then highest military rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union refers. Since that time, it has become much easier for the heads of the allied countries to call Stalin. Churchill and Roosevelt in their telegrams and messages addressed Joseph Vissarionovich as follows: "Marshal Stalin." And among themselves, these prominent politicians called him "intimate" - Uncle Joe. However, immediately after the war, Uncle Joe quarreled with his "nephews" - allies, and the Cold War began.

The manners of a dictator and pretensions to infallibility were discerned in Stalin even before the war by the brilliant English playwright Bernard Shaw, who described him as "a cross between the Pope and a field marshal." And the marshal (or a field marshal equal in rank) in July 1945 stepped into the generalissimo, of which there are few in the entire world history (of which only a few people are known to the whole world). There are no military ranks higher than the generalissimo, and it can be. Nevertheless, in an article written for the 70th anniversary of the "wise and great friend of all the oppressed", "the greatest man on our planet, Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin - a wise leader, teacher, tireless fighter for peace and independence of peoples, builder of a new human society and brilliant commander ", Kliment Voroshilov contrived to exceed this highest limit, pointing out: "The Great Generalissimo of the Soviet Union, as the first creator of the world, said what all our people think ...". A mixture of not the usual, but the "Great Generalissimo" with the "first creator of the world" is stronger than the mixture of the Pope with the marshal-field marshal! Far perishing Shaw until "red Klim"! By the way, in Voroshilov's book "Stalin and the Armed Forces of the USSR", from where all these immeasurable praises are taken, Stalin is depicted with two gold stars on his chest. Thus, the ongoing dispute about whether the leader wore the star of the Hero of the Soviet Union or not can be considered over.

All publications in which something was written about Stalin were carefully reviewed and studied either by the Secretary General himself or by his secretaries. And as soon as the portraits of Stalin with two stars of the Hero were replicated, the question that Stalin did not consider himself entitled to be a Hero of the Soviet Union is removed.

Even the opinion, as it were, intermediate, reconciling the disputants, that Stalin posed with two stars only for ceremonial portraits, is incorrect - in Voroshilov's book on Stalin, the military uniform is not ceremonial, but clearly for everyday wear - with buttonholes, and not with a standing collar with oak leaves.

The break with Yugoslavia led to the emergence of many epithets-insults or nicknames bordering on insults of both Josip Broz Tito and the leaders of the USSR. Tito's "clique" turned out to be not only "Trotskyist" but also "sold out to the imperialists." But how well it all started! Josip Broz worked in the Comintern in Moscow, had a party pseudonym Walter, and Stalin called him that during the Second World War. Walter, who adopted the pseudonym Tito, of course, addressed the leader of the world proletariat officially by his first name, patronymic and surname, in personal meetings he called "comrade Stalin", and behind his back - the Boss.

Even before Stalin was awarded the rank of marshal, he briefly used the pseudonym Druzhkov. In May 1942, Molotov was on a visit to London under the name of Mr. Brown. Stalin signed telegrams to the secret minister with the pseudonym Druzhkov.

As in the case of Yugoslavia, friendship with the Western allies after the Second World War turned into enmity. On June 25, 1950, the Korean Peninsular War began. Stalin in it preferred to act behind the scenes, for which pseudonyms were needed. On May 15, 1950, he sent a ciphergram to Beijing, "allowing" the war in Korea, was signed: "Philippov." Filippov blessed the North Koreans for the war. And Stalin at that time was intensively occupied with the problems of linguistics! On June 25, 1950, the DPRK troops crossed the 38th parallel and quickly took Seoul. But in the south of the country, the People's Army of Korea had already met with American troops. Moreover, the US 7th Fleet landed several landings on the peninsula and the North Koreans requested military assistance from the USSR. General Terenty Shtykov, the USSR ambassador to the DPRK, promised to send Soviet officers to help Kim Il Sung, but was "corrected" by a certain Fyn Xi, who, oddly enough, lives in the Kremlin! The ciphergram from the Kremlin read: "Pyongyang, Soviet Ambassador. Apparently, you are behaving incorrectly, because you promised the Koreans to give advisers, but they did not ask us ... Let our advisers go to the front headquarters and to the army groups in civilian uniform as correspondents" Truth" in the required quantity. You will personally be responsible for ensuring that they are not captured. Fyn Xi". Feng Xi is translated from Chinese as "west wind".

Feng Xi, as best he could, supported the North Koreans, sending the best warriors and equipment to the war. Shortly after Stalin's death and the revelation of his personality cult, the "Western wind" stopped blowing - "friendship forever" with the Chinese ended already under Nikita Khrushchev. And Feng Xi, such a strange and unusual pseudonym, turned out to be the last fictitious name of Joseph Stalin.

Vladimir SOLOMIN
"Kyiv Telegraph" 2007

Most politicians of the Soviet era preferred to use aliases. As a rule, they were associated with historical events, character traits of the owner, or carried other personal reasons. Writers, politicians, scientists became famous precisely under a pseudonym, having managed, if not to keep their real surname a secret, then at least get rid of its use among the people.

The legendary leader of the USSR, Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, was no exception. During his lifetime, he had more than thirty pseudonyms - names, surnames, initials, party nicknames. All of them did not arise by chance and carried a certain meaning. The pseudonym under which the cult personality went down in history was the surname Stalin. It is associated among the people with the difficult times of the Great Patriotic War and with the great victory that was achieved.

This name is associated with mass persecutions and executions, political repressions, denunciations and oppression of the people, and at the same time with the period of reconstruction after the war, the development and prosperity of the Soviet Union. Perhaps, there is not a single family on the territory of the former USSR whose past would not have a connection with the name of Stalin. Many people think that "Stalin" is the real name of the leader.

The history of the emergence of the brightest pseudonym I.V. Dzhugashvili

Many legends are connected with the appearance of the pseudonym Stalin.

Some people believe that the name of a real person, a journalist, served as the source for it. E.S. Stalinsky, who translated into Russian one of Joseph Vissarionovich's favorite poems - "The Knight in the Panther's Skin". At the end of the 19th century, Dzhugashvili himself was engaged in poetry, and, perhaps, decided to take a surname consonant with the author of his favorite work. However, this version runs counter to the character of the world leader, who is accustomed to making only balanced and deliberate decisions.

Stalin from the word "steel"?

So, some put forward the version that the pseudonym "Stalin" is intended to be associated with steel - a hard and durable metal. In the same way we see the character of a revolutionary - persistent and inflexible.

There is a similar Arabic version of origin, according to which the verb "istalla", consonant with the pseudonym chosen by Dzhugashvili, is translated from Arabic as "pull out the sword". Indeed, Stalin was often referred to by his comrades-in-arms as "the naked sword of the revolution."

Perhaps the emergence of the last two legends is not accidental. After all, the name Dzhugashvili is literally translated from Georgian into Russian as "son of steel", from the ancient Georgian "juga" - steel, and "shvili" - son. They characterize the politician as a strong man with an unbending will and desire to fight.

Other opinions about the origin of the pseudonym

It is worth mentioning the less popular versions of the origin, which also have linguistic grounds. According to one of them, if we divide the surname into sta- and -lin, we get two opposite translations: “attack, attack”, and “soft”. Some contemporaries of the leader believe that such a description fits him perfectly. Courteous and gentle with relatives and friends, he was a tough and uncompromising ruler when it came to the interests of the party and the country. Stalin perfectly combined two opposing qualities.

Finally, one of the most rare legends is the reading of the name Stalin as the Arabic "Istalian", which in Russian means "accepting curses". The world leader probably assumed that, admiring him during his lifetime, people would curse the times of his reign after his death. After all, the decisions he made crippled many human destinies and destroyed millions of families. However, he continued to do his hard work, thus ready to take on the curses.

Whatever the reason for choosing a pseudonym, the surname Stalin was firmly attached to the ruler, becoming very successful and fateful for him. It was under her that he entered the history of the Soviet Union, that is what his contemporaries called him and continue to call him to this day, and it is her appearance that causes the most questions among people. Why was Stalin called Stalin? The personality of the world leader is shrouded in many secrets, and this is one of the mysteries that we will never have to solve.

The birth of Koba: an underground nickname or a conscious choice of Stalin

Another pseudonym, under which the head of the people is known to a wide range of people, was the second most popular and beloved by Joseph Vissarionovich - Koba. History has not preserved exact information about why Stalin was called Koba, but there are several possible explanations for this.

Literary version

According to the literary version, he had a personal hidden meaning for the young Dzhugashvili, who at that time had not yet become a tough and powerful ruler and lived in Transcaucasia. Iosif Vissarionovich met the name Koba in the patriotic story of the classic of Georgian literature Alexander Kazbegi "The Parricide". The hero of the story Koba, a young mountaineer who is fighting with all his might for the independence of Georgia. Courageous and persistent, he is ready to achieve the goal at the cost of any sacrifice. Perhaps Stalin saw himself the same way - a staunch and fearless native of the people, capable of leading the masses of the people.

It is worth noting that the name of the hero of the novel itself was borrowed by A. Kazbegi from the history of Georgia, and comes from the name of the Persian king Kobades, who conquered Eastern Georgia in the 5th century. An interesting fact is that the tsar preached communist views, advocating an equal division of property, for which he was dethroned and imprisoned. But soon released from prison by his beloved woman, he again returned to the throne, continuing to remain an adamant ruler. Historians trace an obvious connection between the biographies of the Koba Tsar and Joseph Vissarionovich.

Criminal version

Another, less romantic explanation is connected with the times when the young Dzhugashvili hunted for robberies and was forced to wander around the prison camps. Allegedly, there he was given the nickname "Koba", in prison circles meaning "indomitable".

The pseudonym Koba was more popular in Georgia. When Iosif Vissarionovich moved to the political arena, he became Stalin, and only close comrades called him the old-fashioned Koba, without thinking about the origin of this nickname and without drawing any parallels. The short and capacious surname Stalin turned out to be the most worthy of the great world ruler.

Facts from the history of the reign of the world leader

Stalin took his first political steps back in Georgia, at the beginning of the 20th century, participating in rallies and organizing demonstrations. After meeting the leader of the world proletariat, he absorbed the revolutionary ideas of Lenin even more and became the leader of the Bolshevik Party. The years of Stalin's rule begin in 1922 with a policy of forcible collectivization of agriculture and last until his death in 1953.

The ruler himself considers the years of the first five-year plan to be the most important in the development of the country. If at the beginning the plan was feasible and brought justified results, then Stalin, inspired by success, increased the planned indicators so much that the situation in the country escalated to the limit and, as a result, resulted in mass riots, arrests and repressions. So why did Stalin call 1929 the year of the great turning point, if the internal situation in the country was far from optimistic?

Considering the political course of the Soviet Union in the late 20s and early 30s, outwardly the picture really seemed rosy. Thanks to the forced industrialization, the forced collectivization of property on collective farms, the development of extractive industries, as well as the introduction of the strictest economy regime, Russia turned from an agrarian country into an industrial one.

Have you ever wondered why Stalin was called Stalin. The period of Soviet power is very complex and ambiguous. With all the cruelty of domestic politics, numerous repressions, exiles and denunciations, it was during this period that the country became one of the strongest powers in economic and political terms. All this is the merit of one of the most extraordinary politicians and heads of state of that time.

The childhood of the great leader

In December 1878, the boy Soso was born in the Georgian city of Gori. Full name Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili.

From birth, he had two fused toes. As a child, he had smallpox, as a result, wounds remained on his face. As a teenager, in an accident, he injured his hand, which eventually began to dry out and stopped developing.

The boy's father was a shoemaker. He drank a lot and often beat his mother. There are opinions that Vissarion was not the biological father. Joseph's relationship with his mother was cold.

The last time he saw his mother was a year before her death. The son did not go to the funeral, sending a wreath with a commemorative inscription.

Due to physical handicap, the boy could not fight, so he preferred conspiracies or strategies in the fight against the enemy. He was distinguished by vindictiveness and cruelty.

Why was Stalin nicknamed Koba?

Why the young Dzhugashvili called himself Koba is also not known for certain. Iosif Vissarionovich never talked about this.

Exist several versions of origin this alias:

The main character of Stalin's favorite Georgian novel "The Parricide" by A. Kazbegi was a lonely highlander Koba. He was a revolutionary and a fighter for the independence of his homeland, possessed a sense of justice and nobility. According to one version, this hero was very impressed by Dzhugashvili;
In Church Slavonic, the name Koba means "an omen of the soothsayer", "magic". One of Stalin's pseudonyms, Kato, was close in meaning;
The name Koba was worn by the medieval king of Persia. Under him, the lands of Georgia were expanded, a new capital was founded. The life story of the great tsar surprisingly coincided in many ways with the biography of Stalin.

Thus, Joseph Vissarionovich wore the name "Koba" for a long time. I replaced him only with a tougher Stalin. However, his party comrades called him Koba almost to the very end.

The history of the great family

As you know, the real name of the Soviet leader is Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili. However, according to some reports, he had about thirty pseudonyms. Today, no one knows exactly the history of the emergence of this surname, but there are many legends about this:

In Georgia, Dzhugashvili was closely acquainted with Lyudmila Stal and knew her as a person - a revolutionary. A surname was taken in memory of her;
The pseudonym was taken because of the similarity in the properties of the steel and the nature of the bearer of the surname;
Dzhugashvili's native surname, translated from the ancient Georgian language, is "son of steel";
The role in the choice was played by the name of the journalist, publisher, translator E. S. Stalinsky;

In addition, such a pseudonym has become very successful in terms of politics. It accurately reflected the nature of the activities of Joseph Vissarionovich in the position of head of state, was similar to the name of the leader of the world proletariat Lenin and was easily written and pronounced in different languages.

Stalin and the people: why was there no uprising?

With all the horrors of that regime, studying the history of Stalin's rule, we are really surprised why the people were inactive and did not overthrow this cruel government. The living grandparents who lived in this difficult time will be able to tell you about the reasons for such a resigned perception of Soviet repressions.

There are several official versions:

Dictatorship established in those years was extremely cruel. People could not freely speak about their dissatisfaction with the government, as there was and, importantly, a system of denunciations. Any person could report these arguments and statements to the relevant authorities, after which the guilty person was sent into exile or shot. Thus, human obedience was achieved by intimidation;
The Soviet Union in those years participated in many wars, including a civil war in some territories. People were forced to survive in the conditions of war. Everyone who was not on the front line worked several shifts a day in factories to provide for the military. There could not even be a thought of a coup;
Socialism inherently idealizes the supreme leader. Stalin was for people a kind of divine being. Without him and his reign, the further life of the country was unthinkable. There was a so-called personality cult;
Having received the country in complete ruin, Iosif Vissarionovich made it one of the most advanced in the world, won the war, created nuclear weapons, thereby protecting the borders of a huge state.

Most likely, all these reasons played a role in the minds of people. We have no right to condemn them for this.

Why didn't the leader expect war?

It cannot be said that Joseph Stalin did not expect Hitler's attack at all. He understood that sooner or later German troops would invade the territory of the USSR. Therefore, although the preparations for the war went on, it was not at all at the pace at which it was necessary.

There were two reasons:

At that time, Germany was fighting on the British front. And although the British warned Stalin several times about the impending attack on the Soviet Union, the leader considered this a provocation on the part of England. He did not believe that Hitler would dare to unleash a second front;
The USSR knew that the German army was not prepared for war in the winter. Counting on the thoroughness and love for the order of the Germans, Joseph Vissarionovich expected that the war would begin no earlier than 1942.

It is a mistake to believe that the agreements signed with Germany before the start of the war convinced the Soviet leader of Hitler's pure intentions. However, it was precisely because of the surprise effect that we suffered the heaviest losses in the first months of the war.

Why did Stalin deport Chechens and Ingush?

About a year before the end of the Great Patriotic War, Stalin signed a decree on the eviction of Chechens and Ingush from the territory of the corresponding ASSR. The exact cause historically remains unknown.

However, there are several assumptions:

According to some reports, quite a lot, and this is about 50 thousand Chechens and Ingush deserted during the war. A sufficiently large part of this population did not appear for conscription service;
These nationalities collaborated with the invaders;
Anti-Soviet activity flourished in the republic;
The territory was oversaturated with bandit groups;
In the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, uprisings against the Soviet regime periodically arose.

It is known that the people were evicted illegally, while dividing the territory between North Ossetia, Dagestan, Georgia and the newly created Grozny region. Almost every fourth inhabitant of the republic perished during and after the eviction.

As a result of considering the personality, it becomes clear why Stalin was called Stalin. All the many pseudonyms of this great man faded into the background, and most of his contemporaries remembered him that way. You can argue a lot about the rehabilitation of Stalin and his political mistakes. However, his enormous role in the fate of the Soviet Union and the history of our present state will remain undeniable.

Video about the evolution of the pseudonym

In this video, the historian Arkady Lobanov will tell the most reliable version about the origin of the pseudonym "Stalin", why it was influenced by the leader's love story:

In total, Stalin had more than thirty pseudonyms, each of which had its own meaning and history. It is believed that the name Stalin Dzhugashvili began to use in connection with the bright associative series of hard and resistant metal. Steel is rigid and flexible, a steel rod - this is what has become an integral part of the historical image of a great politician, he is an unbending revolutionary.

Fascism as a tool of the reactionary bourgeoisie

As an ideological and political trend, it arose in Western Europe under the influence of the crisis of bourgeois society in the first decades of the last century. The birth of fascist ideology became possible only after capitalism entered the last - imperialist - stage of its development.

Fascism completely denies the liberal and democratic values that the bourgeoisie is so proud of.

The classic of fascism was given by one of the leaders of the Communist International, Georgy Dimitrov. He called fascism an open and terror-based dictatorship of the most reactionary circles of finance capital. It is not a power over classes. It does not represent the interests of the entire bourgeoisie, but only that part of it which is closely connected with the financial oligarchy.

Unlike Stalinism, which to some extent stood guard over the interests of the proletariat, fascism set itself the goal of cracking down on the workers and the most progressive representatives of other strata of society. Both regimes are related by the fact that both fascism and Stalinism are based on total terror and the merciless suppression of dissent.

If during Stalin's rule there were partial deviations from the classical Marxist ideology, then fascism in all its forms is an ardent and open enemy of communist ideas. Therefore, it is impossible to put an equal sign between these phenomena.

Goals of Stalin and the USSR

Close cooperation between Zionist politicians led by Ben-Gurion and the Soviet leadership began in the pre-war years, the first meeting took place in 1940 on Soviet territory in London. Continued after the war. The Middle East, under the threat of a new world war, has become a strategically important region. Realizing that it would not be possible to get support from the Arabs, Soviet political leaders in general and Stalin in particular saw the prospect of strengthening influence in this region only through the Jews.

In fact, the fate of Israel interested Stalin, who was guided in matters of foreign policy by personal ambitions to expand the international influence of the USSR in so far as. The support of the Jewish leaders, first of all, pursued the goal of weakening the influence of Great Britain and preventing the expansion of US influence in the Middle East. The Soviet leadership, by their actions, tried to create conditions under which they would become dependent on the USSR. In addition, one of the most important tasks facing Stalin was to ensure the security of the southern borders of the Soviet Union.

Actions taken

In order to “squeeze out” Great Britain from Palestine, which has a mandate to control part of the territories of the Middle East, the Soviet leadership made every possible move. In the second half of the 1940s, Palestinian Jews actually fought against England, in which they received material and moral support from the USSR. When the issue of accommodating a huge number of Jewish refugees in the territories of European countries became acute, the Soviet Union made a proposal to send flows of immigrants to Palestine, which did not suit Great Britain.

Under the circumstances, Palestine became a serious problem for London, which led to the decision of the British government to refer the issue of it to the UN. This was the first victory of the Soviet and Zionist leadership on the way to the creation of a Jewish state. The next step was the formation by Soviet diplomats of the opinion of the international community about the urgent need to create Israel. With this task, the foreign policy department of the USSR coped successfully.

After Great Britain introduced the Palestinian question to the UN General Assembly, London stepped aside, and further struggle for the fate of these territories unfolded between the USSR and the USA. As a result of the sessions held, the political leadership of the United States was not able to outplay the Soviet diplomats and win over the majority of the states participating in the meetings to their side. In addition, in the decisive vote, 5 countries of the Soviet bloc provided the necessary number of votes, which resulted in a UN mandate to establish the state of Israel. On May 14, 1948, the day before the end of the British Mandate for Palestine, David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the creation of an independent Jewish state on the territory allocated according to the UN plan.

The day after the declaration of the creation of an independent Jewish state, the League of Arab States declared war on Israel, called in Israel the "War of Independence".

The role of the Soviet Union and Stalin personally in securing the required number of votes was decisive. The Arab countries were extremely outraged by the position of the USSR and categorically did not accept the UN decision. Stalin was no longer interested in the Arab reaction, now his goal was to do everything possible for the speedy accession of the future independent Jewish state to the ranks of his allies.

Sources:

Why did Stalin create Israel or Stalin's Jewish divisions.

Cynics are not born, they become cynics. And this is due to modern foundations and traditions that begin to harm common sense. A cynic is a person who has become disillusioned with the social mechanisms of life and has lost all confidence in one or another authority.

Who are the cynics?

Cynical people are realists who vehemently despise pessimism and optimism. They accept everything as it is. They are never sad and never rejoice if the reason for this is some trifle. And anything can be a “trifle” for them: cynics are not worried about the death of people - there are still many of them on Earth. Cynical people are not worried about the death of children, since this is just another human offspring that has not yet achieved anything. According to psychologists, only adults and psychologically formed individuals can be called cynics.

Such people have their own point of view on the world around them, which distinguishes them from the vast majority. The psychology of a cynic is such that everything around is for sale, and spiritual and moral values never existed. Cynics never value anything: everything lost can be easily returned back, but there are no irreplaceable things and people. This is exactly what these individuals think. In principle, their behavior can be explained: a cynic is a person who is disappointed in life or in people, and therefore communicates with them only by hard calculation.

There is also a reverse side of the coin. Cynical people have a very hard life. The fact is that they see through some people, are not shy about speaking out about them, voicing this or that uncomfortable truth, etc. All this leads to the fact that the cynic encounters resistance in the face of the majority of those around him, loses the ability for adequate critical thinking and looks like a real outcast in their eyes. Psychologists also give an appropriate definition to such “outcasts”. Princeton University professor Charles Issawi calls such people "intolerable cynics."

Why do people become cynics?

Any character traits of the future personality are laid down in childhood. Children and adolescents are very susceptible to certain actions of others: to insults, to betrayal, to humiliation, to coldness. Of course, at first the child does not have any inclinations of cynicism, but as soon as he encounters a serious problem at least once, he begins to fence himself off from everyone around, trying to prove to everyone that he cares about absolutely nothing. A child in childhood tries to hide his own pain, demonstrating his indifference.

Already in adolescence, some of the future cynics are deprived of certain human feelings inherent in the majority. For example, they may have no sentimentality at all, because they believe that it simply makes people dumb. Future cynics do not feel envy and evaluate the surrounding reality objectively, i.e. not heart and soul, but brain. The already formed cynic generally does not adhere to any religion. Psychologists note one curious fact: cynical people identify Jesus Christ with themselves, thinking that he is the same cynic as they are.